Batcave (club)
Encyclopedia
The Batcave was a nightclub
in London, England at Meard Street
, Soho
. It is considered to be the birthplace of the English goth subculture
. As one of the most famous meeting points for early goths, it lent its name to the term Batcaver, used to describe fans of the original gothic rock
music. The term Batcave is also still used by Europe
ans to refer to Gothic music with a prominent Post-Punk
sound and spooky atmospheres.
The club opened in July 1982. Originally specialising in New Wave
and Glam rock
, it later focused on Gothic rock
. Ollie Wisdom, the lead singer in the house band, Specimen
, ran the club with Specimen's Jon Klein as Art Director, and initially with the assistance of production manager Hugh Jones. Famous regulars at the Batcave included musicians such as Bauhaus
, Robert Smith
, Siouxsie Sioux
, Steve Severin, Foetus
, Marc Almond
and Nick Cave
.
A diverse array of bands would play at the club, backed up by their resident DJs Hamish 'the paranoid' McDonald and Annie Hogan (Marc Almond band member). The bands involved included electronic
leading act Alien Sex Fiend
. The host's band Specimen
, who took ample influence from 1970s glam rock
and Sex Gang Children
, is a group that would go on to prove influential in the gothic rock
, dark cabaret
and deathrock
movements. The club also showed 8mm movies in the old theatre and occasionally featured unusual cabaret such as Mr Swing the fakir. Much of the image and fashion used by the subculture can be traced back to the bands who played at the Batcave.
In 1983, a vinyl record entitled The Bat Cave, Young Limbs & Numb Hymns was released on the London recording label. The compilation included Specimen
("Dead Mans Autochop"), Sexbeat ("Sex Beat"), Test Dept. ("Shockwork"), Patti Palladin ("The Nuns New Clothes"), James T. Pursey ("Eyes Shine Killidiscope"), Meat of Youth ("Meat of Youth"), Brilliant
("oming Up For The Downstroke"), Alien Sex Fiend
("R.I.P."), and The Venomettes ("The Dance of Death"). The inside notes:
In 2008 Specimen played live at a 25th Anniversary Batcave party hosted by Club Antichrist in London. The show was recorded as a live album Specimen Alive at the Batcave and released on Eyeswideshut/Metropolis records.
In 2009 Specimen's Jonny Slut and Jon Klein appeared at New Yorks Fashion Institute of Technology following the exhibition 'Gothic Dark Glamour', which featured Jon Klein's 1983 'Pigeon Shit' DIY stage outfit alongside high fashion designers such as Christian Dior and Alexander McQueen. The Fashion Symposium acknowledged the Batcave as a major influence on current high fashion.
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
in London, England at Meard Street
Meard Street
Meard Street in a street in Soho, London. It runs roughly East-West , between Wardour Street to the west and Dean Street to the east...
, Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
. It is considered to be the birthplace of the English goth subculture
Goth subculture
The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify...
. As one of the most famous meeting points for early goths, it lent its name to the term Batcaver, used to describe fans of the original gothic rock
Gothic rock
Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
music. The term Batcave is also still used by Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
ans to refer to Gothic music with a prominent Post-Punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
sound and spooky atmospheres.
The club opened in July 1982. Originally specialising in New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
and Glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
, it later focused on Gothic rock
Gothic rock
Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
. Ollie Wisdom, the lead singer in the house band, Specimen
Specimen (band)
Specimen are a British band formed in the 1980s. Their music has been described as spanning many different genres of music, including glam, goth, punk and post-punk, and the band is widely credited as one of the pioneers of the Gothic movement, both musically and stylistically.-Early days:The band...
, ran the club with Specimen's Jon Klein as Art Director, and initially with the assistance of production manager Hugh Jones. Famous regulars at the Batcave included musicians such as Bauhaus
Bauhaus (band)
Bauhaus was an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978. The group consisted of Peter Murphy , Daniel Ash , Kevin Haskins and David J . The band was originally Bauhaus 1919 before they dropped the numerical portion within a year of formation...
, Robert Smith
Robert Smith (musician)
Robert James Smith is an English musician. He is the lead singer, guitar player and principal songwriter of the rock band The Cure, and its only constant member since its founding in 1976...
, Siouxsie Sioux
Siouxsie Sioux
Siouxsie Sioux is an English singer-songwriter. She is best known as the lead singer of the critically acclaimed rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees and of its splinter group The Creatures . The Banshees produced eleven studio albums and a string of hit singles including "Hong Kong Garden",...
, Steve Severin, Foetus
Foetus (band)
Foetus is the primary musical outlet of industrial music pioneer J. G. Thirlwell. Until 1995 the band underwent various name changes, all including the word foetus. Monikers adopted at different times include Foetus Under Glass, You've Got Foetus On Your Breath and Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel...
, Marc Almond
Marc Almond
Marc Almond is an English singer-songwriter and musician, who originally found fame as half of the seminal synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell...
and Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...
.
A diverse array of bands would play at the club, backed up by their resident DJs Hamish 'the paranoid' McDonald and Annie Hogan (Marc Almond band member). The bands involved included electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
leading act Alien Sex Fiend
Alien Sex Fiend
Alien Sex Fiend is a deathrock band from the UK, composed of the married couple Nik Fiend and Mrs. Fiend . Currently, the band is based in Cardiff, Wales.-History:...
. The host's band Specimen
Specimen (band)
Specimen are a British band formed in the 1980s. Their music has been described as spanning many different genres of music, including glam, goth, punk and post-punk, and the band is widely credited as one of the pioneers of the Gothic movement, both musically and stylistically.-Early days:The band...
, who took ample influence from 1970s glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
and Sex Gang Children
Sex Gang Children
The Sex Gang Children are a positive punk group that formed in the early 1980s in England. Although the original group only released one official studio album, they remain one of the more well-known bands out of the early Batcave scene and have reformed for new albums and touring various times...
, is a group that would go on to prove influential in the gothic rock
Gothic rock
Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
, dark cabaret
Dark Cabaret
Dark cabaret may be a simple description of the theme and mood of a cabaret performance, but more recently has come to define a particular musical genre which draws on the aesthetics of the decadent, risqué German Weimar-era cabarets, burlesque and vaudeville shows with the stylings of post-1970s...
and deathrock
Deathrock
Deathrock is a term used to identify a sub-genre of punk rock incorporating horror elements and spooky atmospherics, that emerged on the West Coast of the United States in 1979.-Characteristics:...
movements. The club also showed 8mm movies in the old theatre and occasionally featured unusual cabaret such as Mr Swing the fakir. Much of the image and fashion used by the subculture can be traced back to the bands who played at the Batcave.
In 1983, a vinyl record entitled The Bat Cave, Young Limbs & Numb Hymns was released on the London recording label. The compilation included Specimen
Specimen (band)
Specimen are a British band formed in the 1980s. Their music has been described as spanning many different genres of music, including glam, goth, punk and post-punk, and the band is widely credited as one of the pioneers of the Gothic movement, both musically and stylistically.-Early days:The band...
("Dead Mans Autochop"), Sexbeat ("Sex Beat"), Test Dept. ("Shockwork"), Patti Palladin ("The Nuns New Clothes"), James T. Pursey ("Eyes Shine Killidiscope"), Meat of Youth ("Meat of Youth"), Brilliant
Brilliant (band)
Brilliant were a British pop/rock group active in the 1980s. Although not commercially successful and mauled by the critics, they remain notable because of the personnel involved - Martin Glover aka Youth, formerly of Killing Joke and subsequently a top producer/remixer; Jimmy Cauty, later to find...
("oming Up For The Downstroke"), Alien Sex Fiend
Alien Sex Fiend
Alien Sex Fiend is a deathrock band from the UK, composed of the married couple Nik Fiend and Mrs. Fiend . Currently, the band is based in Cardiff, Wales.-History:...
("R.I.P."), and The Venomettes ("The Dance of Death"). The inside notes:
"Look past the slow black rain of a chill night in Soho; Ignore the lures of a thousand neon fire-flies, fall deft to the sighs of street corner sirens — come walk with me between heaven and hell. Here there is a club lost in its own feverish limbo, where sin becomes salvation and only the dark angels tread. For here is a BATCAVE. This screaming legend of blasphemy, Lechery, and Blood persists in the face of adversity. For some the Batcave has become an icon, but for those that know it is an iconoclast, it is the avenging spirit of nightlife's badlands — its shadow looms large over London's demi-Monde: It is a challenge to the false Idol. It Will Endure."
In 2008 Specimen played live at a 25th Anniversary Batcave party hosted by Club Antichrist in London. The show was recorded as a live album Specimen Alive at the Batcave and released on Eyeswideshut/Metropolis records.
In 2009 Specimen's Jonny Slut and Jon Klein appeared at New Yorks Fashion Institute of Technology following the exhibition 'Gothic Dark Glamour', which featured Jon Klein's 1983 'Pigeon Shit' DIY stage outfit alongside high fashion designers such as Christian Dior and Alexander McQueen. The Fashion Symposium acknowledged the Batcave as a major influence on current high fashion.